Gregory Jackson, a survivor of gun violence, was shot on April 21, 2013 in Washington, D.C. Since that moment, he’s been working to address gun violence through local community engagement and now, policy advocacy at the Community Justice Action Fund, a group that addresses the intersection of gun violence prevention and criminal justice reform in urban communities of color. CJAF utilizes evidence-based research, data, and analytics to drive the conversation around injustices, especially those that disproportionately affect communities of color.

Having been shot in Washington, D.C., Gregory has taken on the fight for D.C. statehood to allow the more than 700,000 mostly Black and Brown residents of the nation’s capital an equal say in America. Washington, D.C. has relatively strong local gun laws, however, illegal crime guns find their way into D.C. from other states with bad gun laws. If D.C. had voting representatives in Congress, they could fight for stronger federal trafficking laws to protect D.C. residents from gun violence.

In order to keep communities like Gregory’s safe from gun violence, sweeping reforms to our democratic institutions must be implemented. He isn’t asking for incremental policy changes to slowly diminish gun violence in America — he’s calling for bold changes to unrig the rules of democracy and open the door to progress for the gun violence prevention community.